Senior Lecturer at The University of Northampton

Leveling up (slowly) on game design

Inspired by some interesting discussions with the game team at work, I recently picked up Scott Rogers’ Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design in an attempt to learn how to design an engaging game. There are a lot of fascinating conventions, rule, and forms of thoughts in game design we can borrow in pedagogy, psychology, and immersive media (virtual/augmented/mixed reality) research. The book has 18 levels (chapters) and 11 bonus levels, and I am leveling up very slowly…

To better engage with the theories in the book, I also had to conduct 120+ hrs of “research” in D3 Rise of Necromancer. The book also repeatedly refers to BioShock, so I’ll have to get back to that at some point.

Below are my progressively updated notes. They probably don’t make much sense to anyone who has not read the book.

Level 1: N00bs

What is a game: an activity that 1) requires at least one player, 2) has rules, and 3) has a win and/or lose condition.

A game needs a clear objective so the player knows what the goal is. As a designer, you should be able to sum up a game’s objectives quickly and clearly.

Games have two types of genres: story genre ( the type of story such as fantasy, sports) and game genre (the type of gameplay such as action, puzzle, shooter).

Games are made by people with different skills: programmer, artist, designer, producer, tester, writer, product manager, creative manager, marketing, etc.

Level 2: Ideas

Think what gamers want (good games). Make players feel something that they aren’t in the real world (powerful, smart, sneaky, bad, etc.).

What’s the age of my audience? Kids always want what is made for an audience older than their own age group. Don’t make mistake by oversimplifying and talking down to younger audiences. Kids today are far smarter and way better gamers than we give them credit for.

You have no guarantee that your game idea is going to be fun. Theory of Un-fun: Remove all the un-fun, all that should be left is the fun. Don’t be afraid to kill bad ideas. If un-fun is ruining your game, kill the un-fun.

Ideas are cheap; it’s how you use them that matters.

Level 3: Writing the story

The most basic structure of a story:

There is a hero with a desire (rescue a princess)

The hero encounters an event that interferes with obtaining the desired, causing a problem.

The hero tries to overcome the problem but his methodfails

Reversal of fortune. The fail causes more trouble.

An even greater problem and one last problem (boss).

The hero must resolve the finalproblem, and gain the object of desire.

Every time someone plays a game, she creates a narrative. As a designer, you need to look at all the narratives possible and make them ALL fun.

Designers help players to create the narrative. As each experience builds on the next, the goal is to create rising emotional states for the player. (Left 4 Dead uses AI that monitors players’ stress level – calculated using variables including health, skill, and location – then adjusts the items, enemies and the music.)

Players’ narratives can end up quite different from the game’s story.

The Triangle of Weirdness. Choose ONE from characters, activities, and world (to be weird). Choose more than one will risk alienating your audience.

Make the story be in service of the gameplay and not the other way around (example: BioShock have non-mandatory collectible audiotapes that reveal deeper storying without intruding on the main story). Keep your stories lively and moving. Change in the plot or action every 15 minutes.

Theme (e.g., love conquers all, eat or be eaten) can be more important than a story to a game.

Determine how long the game should be.

A game by Any Other Name – Still, choosing a name is the most important thing.

Create characters your players care about. Give players time to bond with the characters. Make death matter.

Game for kids: teach your players things without their even knowing it.

License.

Level 4: Paperwork

Making a game design document (GDD) – communication to the player, your team members, and to your publishing partners. The book provides templates in the bonus levels.

Step 1: the One-Sheet – keep it interesting, informative, and short. Unique selling point – get readers excited about the features of a game without going into lengthy detail about them.

Step 2: the Ten-Pager – people who finance your game will read this. Plenty of relevant visuals. Can be in PowerPoint. Tailor for audience type (the production team or marketing/executives). Includes the Title page, Game outline, Character, Gameplay, Game world, Game experience, Gameplay Mechanics, Enemies, Multiplayer/Bonus, and Monetization.

Step 3: Gameplay progression – several different ways to start a game (start with nothing, several skills but needs to unlock, skills but no knowledge of how to use them, power but lose it after a fight, etc.).

Step 4: The Beat Chart – describe level by level, as a “map” of the structure of the game.

Step 5: GDD – Game designs are living things. GDD provides that launching pad from which to soar. Documents connect the producer, the designer, the artist, and the programmer.

Step 6: Stay open-minded to ideas.

Level 5: Three Cs 1/3 – Character

The Three Cs – Character, Camera, and Control – are probably the most important elements of gameplay.

For the character design, an important rule is “Form follows function“. We want players to easily understand the personality of characters by their appearance (square->strong/dumb, circle->friendly, downward-pointing triangle->powerful or sinister depends on whether its body or face).

Anything you can do to let the players customize their character furthers their feeling of ownership (including physique: eat too much junk food and get fat).

Realistic or stylized design?

Using all the parts to communicate information to the players (movement, appearance, inventory, weapons, etc.).

Use a second character (playable or companion) and make players care about them. Use opposites attract where characters complement and contrast each other. Let the relationship develops early in the game.

Differentiate characters so that each one has a weakness and a strength. Rock, Paper, Scissor (RPS) design.

Use Non-player characters (NPCs) and how they are needed for the players to succeed (tools, access, gear, backstory, compliments,etc.). Given NPCs something to do when idle, which helps to enhance the environment. Have NPCs physically distinct in dress and body language. NPCs may even start a challenge with the player, mimicking a multi-player experience.

Walking is not gameplay. Avoid player travelling for long stretches sightseeing. Add moves, events, etc. Westerners are accustomed to reading things left to right, so have your characters walking to the left makes people feel “ill at ease”.

Alternatingfast and slow gameplay is interesting.

Give your characters some short animation while they are not moving (idle). It’s the art of doing nothing.

Jump is a complex movement. Think the mechanics of jumping. This reflects the decision on physics: real-world vs game physics. A certain fidelity to real life is necessary to sell real-world physics but break it to make the game fun.

The book then elaborates on jumping and falling. The key messages are: 1) make the rules clear and consistent, 2) let players recover quickly (and continue with play).

First person camera – watch DIMS (doom-induced motion sickness), influenced by the field of view. Remedies: high framerate, late stationary reference object, avoid whipping the camera too much, etc. No view, thus less bond with the characters.

Third person camera – clear view of the character (‘s backside). Challenges on camera design:

Camera movement: treat camera as a person, give it room to manoeuvre

Sorting: move through a geometry with a collision. 1) detection radius to avoid collision or 2) turn object translucent, etc.

Link to controls

Camera flipping: camera bounces between objects.

Obstruction: something gets between the camera and the player

Position: camera strictly follows the player or laid back and follow freely?

Who has the control of camera?

Player control – 1) Allow players completecontrol over the following camera: players can get quickly disoriented, miss events, DIMS. 2) Free-look camera: simulating character’s head. limited range. Put cameras on hydraulics (or elastics). In certain context, simulate a piece of equipment such as binoculars or transition to the first-person view.

No player control – less to worry about, designers focus on visible polygons or textures, no risk players missing key elements, must consider and match players movement, let players get out of it easily if the camera is blocked.

Probably a hybrid of the previous two.

Isometric camera – God view with no perspective adjustments. map 3d objects to 2d surfaces. In many cases, iso views are actually bi-metric view since only two axis pairs share the same angles. This is to accommodate 2:1 pixel for less pixelation. Elevation can be an issue for iso.

Always point the camera to the objective. Even if players can’t see the objective, provide tools such as “detective mode” to pinpoints objectives, show an arrow/tag, turn obstruction transparent, etc.

Multiplayer cameras.

Level 7: Three Cs 3/3 – Control

Controls are universally applicable to every style of game.

Away remember that humans are playing these games and we should avoid making the control itself too challenging (whilst the gameplay can still be).

Assigning controls to different fingers based on what they are (not) good at.

When designing for young players, keep the controls (button presses, etc.) simple.

Do not go nuts with the uber complex controls.

There are a lot of different controls on touchscreens. Use as few as possible to minimise confusing.

A good designer will think about how the game is played in the real-world as well as in the game world. Button smashing -> Claw hands -> Occupational overuse syndrome.

Never have a button do nothing when pressed:

Play a “negative response”

Make it clear that a button is inactive, then make a big deal when it is unlocked.

Assign a redundant but related function (to engage players’ memory of that button)

Map the moves to logical control locations helps immerse the player into the game world.

Resembles that of other successful games.

As the button is pressed, the action should happen (more or less promptly). Use long animation carefully and with a purpose.

Most game controls are character-relative. Camera-relative ones don’t make much sense…

Actuators and gyroscopes in a controller. Silent Hill used two actuators at different frequencies to simulate a heartbeat. Creepy… Tilt controls getting popular in mobile games. As the gyroscope is hidden within the mechanism of the controller, remind players that this function is available.

Camera-based motion controllers – broad and mimic reality.

Level 8: Sign language: HUD and Icon design

The heads-up display (visual screen overlay) is the most effective way of communicating with players.

HUD is used for a wide spectrum of game elements to assist gameplay:

Healthbar

in reverse: damage bar

as a story device that represents the game’s narrative

wait for health?

replaced by first-person-style effects or a third-person view

Targeting reticule

stickiness (aim assist)

colour/contrast consideration, zoomed-in mode

Ammo gauge

Inventory

quick access to items

how players arrange items?

clear silhouettes

expandable

permanent location or “magic box” that follows players through the game world

Score/experience

arcade era

online gaming leaderboards

Positive messaging

“Finish him!” keep players excited about their performance

Positive re-enforcement for their actions that they don’t receive for their actions in everyday lives (or perhaps they are used to receiving those in real lives)

big and flashy. make players feel good

Radar/map

legible but not too big

make it easy for the player to move and look at the map at the same time

You can learn level design from theme parks like Disneyland. Theme parks are designed to move guests from one adventure to the net in the most effective way possible, like how a game should moveplayersthrough different experiences.

Build a map to help the team understand the connection between all levels.

Use Foreshadowing to build anticipation.

Design goals for each level: Escape/survive, Explore, Educate, or Provide a moral.

Moral – Morals and consequences in games

Use Beat chart to design and revise levels. Help to alternate between experiences and keep things fresh.

Be smart with your art assets and repurpose them.

Use landmarks to help players re-orient themselves. Never intentionally get players lost.

If you need to make players go to a location more than twice, do something to make that experience different.

Fingers is a way to make a world feel deeper and fuller without complex geometry and multiple paths. Every finger should have an award at the end.

Alternatingelevation and weather make an environment feel natural.

If it looks as if players can go there, they should be able to.

Don’t be bound by realism, especially when it contradicts game experience/camera, control

Design your games between “big moments” and “small moments” so players can get a rest between.

Paceout your game so you can control the overalllength of a game.

Level 10: The elements of combat

Many video games are violent – easy to introduce actions.

graphic, dramatic, visceral

quick response feedback

pleasure principle – the instinctual seeking of pleasure and avoiding of pain

other human interactions such as conversation, romance, humour, etc are often hard to re-create

Think of a uniquecombatstyle for your character

distance – close-range, medium, long, area effects/bomb

elevations – standing position, low, hight, aerial

Build an attack matrix so you can make every characterunique – this applies to weapons too.

When player press a button, waste no time on prolonged animations and perform actions immediately.

Use particle and visual effects to make attacks feel more dynamic and rewarding.

Provide supermove for the big finish. The enemy should react to wherever he’s been hit.

Use cameramovements to show the impact of strikes. – People want to play games that make them look cool

Weapon often defines a character.

Don’t forget impromptuweapons – chairs, pipes, etc.

Use lock-on system to help player aim

Allow players to defend themselves but don’t turn a defensive manoeuvre into a disadvantage

Make characters’ appearancereflectingstatuses such as health or new ability.

A few tricks to scare players on Page 292. – Sound is the scariest thing there is. Use these principles in a positiveway for trauma therapy, etc.

Don’t let the enemy have all the fun. Strive to enable the players.

Design death carefully so to keep players playing. Don’t give players a good reason to stop.